WORLD-FAMOUS artist Andy Goldsworthy has chosen a collapsed sheepfold high in the Howgills as the location for his ' memorial' to the foot-and-mouth outbreak, reports Rachel Kitchen.

He plans to rebuild the washfold south-west of Cautley Spout waterfall on Brant Fell, Sedbergh, and to make a dry-stone cairn clad with washed fleeces to be burnt or weathered away by wind and rain, evoking the loss of sheep during the crisis.

The project has attracted widespread support, and the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority has given planning permission.

In his statement to planning committee members, Goldsworthy (pictured) said foot-and-mouth disease broke out the week he visited the Red Gill fold, and the walk up Cautley Spout was the last he was able to make in this country for several months, so the fold had inevitably become linked with the outbreak in his mind.

He proposes to make the six to seven-feet-high cairn inside the fold or nearby, cladding it with fleeces so it appears "almost snow-like" in the landscape, then setting fire to the wool or leaving it to disperse.

"The disappearing wool will be evocative of the loss of the sheep.

The absence of sheep was a potent image of foot-and-mouth.

The empty fields stood as witnesses to their departure.

The sheep were gone but the fields they left behind were ingrained with their memory," he explained.

"I would like the cairn to have a similar quality to one of those fields."

Yorkshire Dales planners heard Sedbergh Parish Council "could accept the heritage aspect" of rebuilding the sheepfold but they strongly objected to the cairn, seeing it as "a waste of public money" and "likely to cause offence".

Sedbergh and District Chamber of Trade felt the project could boost Sedbergh's economy by creating another point of interest for visitors, and Sedbergh and District Buildings Preservation Trust was also supportive.

Sedbergh and District Art Society was also in favour, and secretary Carole Nelson, who works at Farfield Mill arts and heritage centre, felt the project could inspire future landscape painting and photography courses.

Cumbria County Council is funding the artistic venture, which is part of Goldsworthy's Sheepfolds project to rebuild and enhance 60 folds throughout the county.

The project began in 1996.